This afternoon I did something that made me look at my home town in a whole different way, and from a different angle too. An historical walk around Sunderland city centre (although I still think of it as 'town' and probably always will) was a great way to spend an hour or so on this Sunday. The walk was led by Dr Michael Johnson, whose book The Architecture of Sunderland 1700-1914 will be published later this year. We set off from the Sunderland Museum and Library. I was gobsmacked to find out that after the Museums Act of 1845, Sunderland was the first place in the UK outside of London to build and open a public museum. My own, strong, personal memories of the museum and winter gardens are two-fold. First, the Saturday morning walks around the duck-pond with various great-aunts, grandma and mam before we all went into town for shopping when I was a child. Second, my then baby-brother's pram was nicked from the museum steps when we went into the museum ...
